Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I wish to share my time with Deputy Michael Ring and I ask the Acting Chairman to let me know when I am half way through the time. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving us the opportunity to raise this issue tonight. I am conscious that it was raised by Deputy Deenihan last night with the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, and I noted his response.

There has been considerable progress in the payment of REPS claims since 27 January with 5,500 claims paid out during that time. However, only 212 have been paid to farmers in County Mayo, from a possible total of 1,353 applicants. The REPS cheque and the scheme itself are extremely important to farming and agriculture in the county and nobody doubts its success to date, nor what it has achieved. However, in 2008 when farming incomes fell by 12.8% and are due to fall by more this year, that cheque is incredibly important and many expenditure commitments are made on its back.

The difficulty now for farmers in County Mayo is that they are completely in the dark as to when they can expect payment, if they can expect it, and whether their plans have been accepted. There seems to be no way for Deputies to find information and provide answers for them. The local Department staff based in County Mayo have been put under considerable and unfair pressure in the past few weeks as they try to deal with this issue and get answers from other Departments and from sections of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in other parts of the country. There does not appear to be a system of responding quickly to queries.

I respectfully suggest that members of staff in the Minister of State's Department who are involved in several on-farm inspections be moved into the REPS section to address this backlog. I ask that a specific taskforce or examination be set up within the Department to examine the delays, particularly those in County Mayo.

Following a meeting attended by Deputy Ring and me last week with the IFA, the Department recognised that County Mayo has a specific problem and presents specific challenges. We must discover why that is the case and what action the Department is taking to deal with it. Tomorrow there is to be a meeting between the IFA and officials from the REPS section of the Department concerning the scheme generally. The chairman of Mayo IFA, Mr. Mark Galvin, is to attend that meeting and he will also raise the issue.

The Minister must consider the human element of the matter. It is all very well to talk about computer programmes, EU Commission investigations and so forth. These are obviously part of the problem but the human element must be considered. This is a time when many REPS applicants have had their farm waste management grants delayed, their dairy cheques reduced, or we have cut their disadvantage payment because of the current expenditure restrictions. I ask the Minister of State and the Department to consider the impact and to make a specific effort in the coming days to replicate what has been achieved nationally in terms of dealing with the REPS 4 backlog in the past four weeks and apply it to County Mayo.

In the context of the coming decisions and before 7 April, I ask that on-farm schemes be left untouched because they were hammered in the budget in October, particularly those applicable to the west. Farmers have already played their part in the national recovery.

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